Дебаты дьявола с ангелом, часть 3: Вечеринка на выходных, чтобы остановить войну (2011, Феникс), занятие 1

[Говорящий 2]
Welcome everybody. Tonight I have the special honor of introducing Geshe Michael Roach. Geshe Michael Roach is a well-known scholar, teacher, translator, and business figure in the world of yoga and business, and also Tibetan Buddhism.

He is the founder of six related yoga institutions, including the Yoga Studies Institute and Diamond Mountain University. He wrote the best-selling, internationally acclaimed book, The Diamond Cutter. It's been translated into 20 languages, over 20 languages, and we're still going with those translations.

And that book was based on his success with Andean International, a company that grew to $250 million, which sold to Warren Buffett not too long ago. He's also the author of Karmic Management, How Yoga Works, The Essential Yoga Sutras, The Garden, and The Painting of Dharma. He is the only Westerner in 600 years to earn the prestigious title of Geshe or Master of Buddhism from the Tibetan Buddhist Monastery.

He also is a Princeton graduate and a U.S. Presidential Gold Medal Scholar. He's founded Karmic Management circles throughout the world, business organizations in over 16 U.S. cities, and also internationally dedicated to bringing karmic principles to the world. And also, I think because we're here to learn about meditation, and a lot of people here might have a little bit of a yoga background, it's also nice to know that Geshe Michael has also completed a three-year, three-month, three-day retreat, which is a very profound undertaking.

And I think tonight we're going to be talking about ultimate meditation with a text that was written by His Holiness the First Panchen Lama, and a discussion that happens within his own mind about what's going on up there.

[Говорящий 1]
And I think we all can relate to this, the devil and angel going on in our own head.

[Говорящий 2]
And to appreciate this text, we have the unique pleasure of having Geshe Michael give the first oral transmission of this particular text here in the United States, and has translated this for us. This is what your reading has in it. Please give a warm welcome to Geshe Michael Leung.

[Говорящий 1]
Thank you for coming. I will just start. So this is a sort of an ongoing text that we've been studying.

In Tibetan, it's called dan zin shang den. Dan zin means to misunderstand our lives, and that's the cause of all the unhappiness in a person's life, and all the pain in a person's life. So dan zin means to misunderstand the way things are.

In yoga they call it avidya, right? Then shang den means a, what do you call it, like when there's a big fight and an argument. An argument and a fight is shang den.

Shang den means like when a husband and a wife, you know, big knock-off, drag-down fight, okay? That's called shang den. So it's inside of one person's mind, and an angel has come to the person's mind.

And the angel, in this tradition, in the, Panchen Lama is like a Dalai Lama. When the Dalai Lama is young, the Panchen Lama rules the country. And then when the Panchen Lama gets older, the Dalai Lama is maybe 20, and then he starts to rule the country.

So they switch off. And so this was written by the first Panchen Lama, about 400 years ago. And in his text, which is in poetry, an angel comes and begins to whisper understanding into one person's mind.

And then naturally the devil has been there a long time. We would say for time with no beginning. For lifetimes with no beginning.

And the devil's a little uncomfortable, because, you know, this new guy in town, the lady of the angel, is threatening his position. So he fights back. And I like the text because the devil is not a pushover, and he's not stupid.

He's very, very intelligent. He's sensitive. He understands meditation and philosophy maybe better than we ever will.

So he fights back very eloquently and very skillfully against the angel. We've been doing this text a couple of times. I think we did two sessions already, or what?

Two each year. I don't know. But anyway, I thought it was going to be a one or two weekend thing, but it's going to go for I think a couple of years maybe.

Because it gets very, very, very beautiful. Like I had a choice for tonight, you know. I translated 20 pages.

I thought, oh, we'll get through 10 pages tonight. We're not going to get through five lines. And I thought, when I was preparing, I said, why not just slow down and do it right?

Like really do it at the depth that the angel and the devil are doing it. And these are not some theoretical angel and devil. You have this devil in your mind right now.

And this devil causes all of your unhappiness in life. And it also prevents you from getting all the things you want. If you could learn to defeat, there's no real devil, okay?

We don't believe that there's some guy jumping around in your head or something like that. There's not room, right? And, you know, of course it's metaphoric.

But perhaps the misunderstanding our life is more destructive than a devil could ever be. You see what I mean? So if we could learn to understand where things come from, you could be happy.

You could have all the things you want. You could make a $200 million company, sell it to one person in your spare time. You know, you could have beautiful relationships.

You could have good health. You could have anything you want. The way you live now is a mistake.

And it's very random. It's very hit or miss, right? You try things to make money, or you try things to be happy.

You try to have relationships with people. And then always something goes wrong, or things are not quite working out. And these are because we don't understand where things are coming from.

If we understood the angel's point of view, then you could just be flatly happy all the time. And you could have all the things you want. It's not a big deal, okay?

The reason we don't have the money you want, or the relationship you want, or the body you want, or anything, or the world you want, it all comes down to the devil, okay? It's the misunderstanding where things come from. So in the course of their discussion, their shanda, their, what do you call it?

Knock out, drag down? Knock down, drag out? Their very violent encounter is meant, and we're supposed to listen in on them talking, in the person's mind.

And then we're supposed to learn from this discussion what we're supposed to do. So I wanted to remind you where we were, okay? Last time we spoke about, the devil was praising certain kinds of meditation that don't work, okay?

He was saying, I love it when people think they're being spiritual and they do these meditations because they don't make any progress at all. And I've never seen the angel in their minds when they're doing these meditations. And these meditations are beautiful meditations.

They are very sophisticated meditations. One, of course, is on your breath. You just watch your breath, you know, and you follow the breath, and you try not to think of anything else.

And this is a meditation. It's found in the, I don't know, 4th century Abhidharmakosha, it comes from there. And it's a valid meditation.

But it's only a warm-up. It's like Surya Namaskar without the breath. You see what I mean?

It's just a warm-up. It was never meant to be done on its own. It was just supposed to be the first five minutes of your meditation.

And then you were supposed to go to a real meditation. And then this whole system has, even in the modern world, I think the Pasanora, it's just, there are certain systems where you just watch your breath, or you try not to think about anything. So the devil was praising him.

And then he had a very interesting meditation about the present moment, learning to be in the present moment. And we've been teaching that meditation. We've all been doing that meditation for six months or something.

And how to be present in the present moment. And the devil also praises this meditation. I like this meditation.

I practice it every day. But if you don't go on from there, if you just be here in the present moment and you don't use it to go anywhere, then it's a mistake. It's like just warming up and not doing the race.

Or doing your Surya Namaskar and never doing... You do your Surya Namaskar and then you lay down. And nothing happens.

So the devil was... He was mentioning beautiful meditations. But he said, these will not get me out of your mind.

They don't touch me. By themselves they don't touch me. Because they don't go further into where is stuff coming from.

Then the devil makes a very beautiful argument. He says, by the way, Miss Angel, of understanding, you're never going to get me out of the mind. You can't get me out of this person's mind.

It's unfortunate. His mind has these two people. His mind...

Each one is trying to push the other one out. And the devil says, you're never going to get me out of your mind. And the angel says, why?

Why do you say that? And then the devil says, karma put me here. He's very sophisticated.

He says, karma put me here. And what karma creates, not even a Buddha can change. If karma put me in your mind, not the most powerful being in the world can take me out of your mind.

Because karma is more powerful. Nobody can overcome karma. Karma brought me into this person's mind.

And not even a Buddha can change karma. You can't get me out of your mind. It's not possible.

And then the angel says, you're right to a certain extent. What is karma? Karma means how you treat other people.

Basically, karma just means how you treat other people. If you have... What do you call it?

Probably if you've confused other people, then you will be confused, right? If you confuse other people, you will be confused. If you confuse other people about where things are coming from, then you will have a sound in your mind, you will have thoughts in your mind that tell you the wrong thing.

You see, that's the devil. That's who put the devil in your mind. Who put the devil in your mind?

Who can put the devil in your mind? It's only you, okay? You have to create the causes, which might be hurting other people, okay?

And then you get this... Then you get this voice in your mind telling you wrong things, okay? And in the moment that that karma opens, in the moment that that seed opens, no power in the world can change it.

Nothing. No Buddha, nobody. Nobody can change it.

Once karma opens, in the present moment, you can't change it. And the devil is right. But then the angel comes back and says, What did she say?

You're riding on the... You forgot to count the donkey you're riding on. Do you remember that?

Nobody remembers that. You forgot to count the donkey you're riding on. So this is an old story from Tibet.

Some guy had a bunch of donkeys. He had 50 donkeys, right? And he put them out to pasture in the morning.

And then in the evening you have to go collect them all, right? So, he's out, he goes out, he rides out to collect his donkeys, you know. And he's counting his donkeys, you know.

And he's like, let's see, 47, 48, 49, you know. And then he rides around, so he can't find number 50. He spends like three hours looking for it.

And then suddenly he's like, Ah, I'm riding on number 50, you know. So, if you don't know that story, then you won't understand the poem at this point. He says, you are riding on the...

You forgot to count the donkey you're riding on. Which means, you say because of karma you have to stay in the mind. Misunderstanding was brought into the mind by hurting other people.

And you say, that's gonna keep you in the mind. But because how you treat other people determines what you hear in your own mind, I can get rid of you. The reason you gave to prove why you have to stay is the exact reason why you can be kicked out.

Got it? The reason why you said you can stay, which is karma, is exactly how I can kick you out. I just have to be good to people.

I just have to be nice to people. And then that will kick you out. Automatically.

Like donkey number 50. Okay? It's like, no question.

It's automatic, okay? That's where we were, okay? That's where we were.

And then, the last thing that Dachen Lama said was, what brought you here is what means every person in the world can become an angel, okay? Or like an enlightened being, okay? So what brought you here, the forces that brought you into this person's mind, which is how we treat other people, right?

That's exactly why everyone can become an angel. It's very beautiful. So not only can I kick you out of the mind, but I can make this mind perfect.

I can make this person a perfect angel. Why? You mentioned it yourself.

If I treat others with kindness, first of all I can kick you out, but then I can change this person into an enlightened being, an angelic being, okay? So then that's where we left off, right? That's where we left off last time.

Now, the angel starts to tell us how we could improve our meditations and make them strong enough to turn our body and mind into an angel's body, okay? Got it? So, the angel criticized meditations where you just watch your breath all day, or meditations where you stare at a wall, or meditations where you just be in the present moment and don't go anywhere else.

He was criticizing that. So then we can ask the angel, you know, what do you want more? What do I have to do after that?

If that's the Missouri Namaskar, if that's the warm-up meditation, then what's the ultimate meditation? So we call this class Tonight and Tomorrow, The Ultimate Meditation. This class is a special class.

After we arranged the dates, we chose dates that were between all of our tours. So we just got back from Mexico, and before that we were in Ukraine, and then we were in Bulgaria, and before that we were in Paris, and before that we were in Vancouver, and before that we were in Montreal, and Toronto, okay? Then we were in Montreal.

We had the pleasure of speaking. We had some friends who arranged for us to meet with some Muslim leaders in a mosque in Montreal, very beautiful mosque. And so we had a chance in Montreal to sit together and have a meal.

We attended the prayers, and we had nice talks together. And then I asked them, you know, would you come to Phoenix sometime and give us a talk, you know, and speak a little bit? And so they said yeah, and then we realized later that this weekend is the 10th anniversary of 9-11 Sunday.

I was in a three-year retreat during 9-11. I wasn't aware of it for two and a half years. I didn't hear about it for two years.

When I came out of retreat, the newspaper came and said, you know, you're probably the only person in the world that doesn't know about 9-11. And I'm like, what do you mean 9-11? Is it some kind of new supermarket?

And they were, and then, but then we came out of retreat, and Scott had an NPR interview. They did a nice interview with Scott last week. It aired last week, and they asked, how do you feel when you come out of a three-year retreat?

And it was, when we came out of our three-year retreat, it was very sad, because when we went into retreat, the stock market had reached new, you know, it went up to 3,000 or something. And then we came out, and everybody was obviously, how do you call it, angry. Everybody was angry.

And we drove in the car. We left the retreat in a car, and then on the road, we saw all these cars with American flags, and everyone was like, oh, you know. And we're like, what's going on?

You know, what happened? And then they explained to us what happened, and then everyone, we felt anger, and then we went to a Dalai Lama. I went to a Dalai Lama talk in the Central Park shortly after that, and he was giving a talk in the park, and there were like 5,000 people there.

And then a helicopter came over, really low, and everybody was like, like this, you know. You felt this shock closer to the crowd, and everybody was like looking at the helicopter. And then I realized everybody was afraid.

So there was this fear, and there was this anger when we came out. And then we felt bad, because we didn't feel it, and we didn't understand it. And I think now, I have personally great hopes.

We all, how do you say, the causes for 9-11 are many, and the main causes are something that exists in all of us. You see what I mean? We all have the capacity to do this kind of thing, and we proved it, right?

We did a nice work, and we wasted. You could have built a home for every person in Iraq with the same money. Every family could have had a new home, you know.

And that would maybe be a good way, you know. Like, it's crazy. It was very crazy for me.

So I thought, I felt, I felt like I should understand Islam more, and I went to Morocco, and I spent two months studying with a scholar there, and I gained a great appreciation for the Quran, and for Islamic culture. And it's a very beautiful, ancient culture. Even the architecture.

A lot of the architecture of Arizona is from Andalusia, from the Moors. And it's a very beautiful culture. So anyway, I felt like it was time, it would be time to have some sort of a final party, and ask some Muslim friends to come and teach us, and do prayers together tomorrow.

So tomorrow, from 6 to 7, we have two dear friends, Sharif from Montreal, who led the prayers in the mosque there, and Aisha Khan, who brought us to Toronto and Montreal. And they're going to, tomorrow, I asked them, and I'd like to welcome Sharif's wife, Hasna. I, so from 6, at 6 42 tomorrow, is the official time for prayers.

And I was, I asked Sharif if he could lead us in some prayers tomorrow, and he was kind enough to come. And so we'll be doing some traditional prayers at 6 42. We're always late, but we can't be late.

We'll have to try. And then, I asked, I challenged Aisha and Sharif to, before that, like starting at 6 o'clock, to speak. So that's like 20 minutes each.

And then, I can't even get warmed up in 20 minutes, but that's their problem. Then, I thought maybe, I said, give us three things that, each of you, give us three things that you think we can do to heal that split between the Muslim world and the Western world. How can, we are just normal people in Phoenix, Arizona, you know.

We're not politicians, you know. But we want to see the world be friends and to come together in love. So give us three things that a normal person in Phoenix, Arizona, could do to try to cause more healing.

I think it's a, it feels like a good time to let go of all those things and to start over. Like 10th anniversary would be a very good time to say, okay, let's just start over. You know, and so, they're gonna speak.

I hope you'll come tomorrow at 6, okay. So that'll be tomorrow at 6 o'clock. 6 to 7 we'll have that program.

7 to 9 30, we'll do the second half of this talk. And then at 10, we thought to celebrate maybe a healing, you know. So there'll be a dance and there'll be a disc jockey here.

I promise not to come, so you can do all you want to do. And, you know, it's non-alcoholic and non-drug. Nobody's gonna get in a fight, actually.

And, this is one of the most beautiful spaces in Arizona. So I think it will be, I think it will be nice. And then we're gonna ask for donations at the party.

And then those donations will be given to a charity called War Child. And they help children who've been affected by war in the Middle East, but also in Africa and other places. So all the funds will be donated to that.

So I hope you'll come. And sort of just at the stroke of midnight, it will be 9-11. And maybe we can all celebrate a new time.

Because the more I study Islam and Arabic and the Quran, the more I like it. And the more I feel inspired by it. So I think it's just some kind of devil problem.

There's been a problem and there's been conflict, but it doesn't have to be. And it's very beautiful. The more you study the Quran, the more beautiful you see it is.

You see, so... So I hope we can start like that. Okay.

Where were we? Oh, yeah. Some devil, the other devil.

So then the devil says, ask the angel. Well, how do you propose that we meditate better? If just watching your breath is not enough, and if just being in the present moment is not enough, what do you want me to do?

What more do you need? How does meditation become a cause to stop the unhappiness in your life and to get the things you want in life, you see? Because real meditation should be a cause.

It should help you to get the things you want in life, right? And not be unhappy. To get happiness and then to get...

I mean, you can get everything else too. You can get material comfort, which is okay. It's not bad, okay?

To meditate, you have to have a house. To meditate, you have to have food. To do yoga, you need a studio.

You need a teacher. You need infrastructure. You need some physical things, you know, to have a good life.

I'm not saying you need six Mercedes to do yoga or something like that, but you need food, and you need a house, and people need things. And then you can be comfortable, and you can reach your spiritual goals, right? So, how to do that, you see?

How to get all the things we need in an easy way, okay? If you can push the devil out or at least suppress him for a while, then you can understand how to be comfortable and not struggling with your credit cards and stuff like that, you see? You can tweak reality, you know, in a modest, comfortable way, okay?

I don't, I made a, I helped make a 250 million dollar company with these principles, but I'm not like making money, you know? I live in a very small house, and I just have enough room to meditate and, you know, play my bass and things like that, you know, and that's okay. It should be like that.

And then we should do something for the world, okay? I mean, we should be comfortable. You should have beautiful relationships.

These are your right. It's almost like a human right, you know? You should have enough money to be, not to be burdened under credit cards all the time and worrying all the time, and then you should have, you should have a nice relationship, and you should have a nice family, and you should enjoy them, right?

And then you should be healthy, and these are your rights, right? And then once you get those things, you should, you should help the world become a place of peace, right? This is our, this, then your life is fulfilled, and that's a good life, you see?

So the angel, the devil says, what do you propose is going to bring me out of that, okay? What do I need to do on top of my breath meditation to bring me out of that? And then the angel takes off, okay?

And it gets hard, okay? The angel, it gets hard. The angel says, okay, here's the whole thing for the weekend, okay?

The angel says, you can't be happy until you understand who you are, okay? You can't be happy until you understand who you are, because right now you don't understand who you are, and you don't understand where you're coming from, right? So how can you change?

How can you fix your problems? How can you get the things you want if you don't even know who you are, you see? And so the angel proposes that we should meditate on who we are, and it gets hard, okay?

It gets really hard to understand how to be happy, how to get the things you want is hard, because you never understood it before, okay? So that means we have to start with... Who's got it?

You got one? I think I did that in the mosque probably also. Okay.

If you didn't see those before, if you did you can fall asleep for a while. Okay. I'm going to start with a pen, okay?

I'm just going to start with a pen, because that's sort of a beginning. And then we're going to go deep, okay? Then we're going to jump into something, which is difficult.

It's just difficult. It's a radical solution for a radical problem, okay? If we leave our life as it is, happiness will come to you almost randomly, and it will leave you almost randomly, and in the process you will get old, and then you will die.

And that's the end of the story, right? If you understand this, you can start to change that, okay? So here we go.

Just be, you know, what do you say? Be natural, okay? Nobody's looking at you, nobody cares what you think.

Okay, here we go. Just answer the question. In the monastery, if you don't answer right away, they give you a rosary on the head.

So only the people in front have to wear it. Okay, here we go. You've got to answer, okay?

Or else you get these red dots all day, and all the other monks make fun of you. Okay. What's this thing?

It's a pen, okay. But the three people who answered are correct. If a dog came into the room, a small puppy dog, and I wave the thing in front of the dog, then would they see a pen?

What would they do with this thing? They would probably chew on it, okay? I'm talking small puppy dog, you know, with good teeth.

They would probably chew on it. The dog sees it as something to chew on. The human sees it as a pen.

Next question. Let's try to get more than three people. Who's right?

The dog or the human? You can say both. I mean, right away you can say both.

It makes sense, right? Both are right. Now I have another question, okay?

If I leave this thing here, on the chair, and all the humans go out to have their refreshments. There are refreshments, right? And all the dogs go out of the room, okay?

Then, which one is it? A pen? At that time, is it a pen, or is it something to chew on?

You can say neither. Aisha's right. That's a good answer.

No, it's like, at that time, it's not really either one, okay? So get this, okay? If you don't learn anything else tonight, and you never come back, you take refreshments and you run, okay?

Get this. That's what emptiness means in Buddhism, okay? That's what emptiness means in Buddhism.

It doesn't mean nothing matters. It doesn't mean cigars on the wall. It doesn't mean everything's delirious.

It doesn't mean those things. Emptiness means when nobody's there, that thing on the chair is like a white screen. You could call it availability or something.

Maybe emptiness is a bad word. You could call it available. It's available to be the thing, okay?

It's like a white projector screen. If you don't learn anything else tonight, you can, in your next cocktail party, which is probably Saturday, we're going to have non-alcoholic cocktails, okay? But the same price.

You can you can just impress people with your knowledge of emptiness. I know what emptiness is. And then the girl's going to say, oh, I've always wanted to meet someone and then you can say, you know, it's just like a white movie screen.

It's available to be in a thing, okay? So now, next question. If I see it as a right hand, show me your right hand.

By the way, this is how to teach it, okay? Those of you who are teaching, show me whether is the pen coming from you or is the pen coming from the pen side? Show me which way.

Think about it and then show me. Don't just follow a rail.

[Говорящий 2]
You might be wrong.

[Говорящий 1]
Is it coming from you or is it coming from inside? It's you. Why?

Because the dog doesn't see a pen, okay? Therefore, it must be coming from you. It must be coming from you.

If it's a pen, if it's like yelling, if this object is always yelling, announcing, I'm a pen! I'm a pen! Then the dog would also say, oh, a pen!

You know? But it doesn't announce its nature. Whatever we see must be coming from us.

Now, next question. If it's coming from me, can I change it into something else? Can I just close my eyes and say, I would rather have a piece of gold?

So, that's a delicate question, right? But the first question, is it coming from you? You say, yes.

Can you change it simply by wishing or praying or wanting? We tried that when you were five years old. You prayed for a red bike and you got a vacuum cleaner or something.

At Christmas, right? So, you can, you know, wish, you can pray, it's not going to change it. You know that.

You learned that. When you were young, you learned that. So, it's coming from me, but I can't control it in the present moment.

I can't control what it is by wishing. So, then how do you explain why I see a pen? What happens when I see a pen?

We say, okay, that you have a seed in your mind. And when I, you ready? We'll do it again.

When I hold up the thing, then suddenly a seed opens in your mind. In that second, a seed opens in your mind, a small picture of a pen comes into your consciousness, from your subconsciousness, and you, that picture, you sort of lay that picture on top of this thing. You see?

And the dog has a different seed. And their seed opens, and they lay a saliva picture on it. You know?

Okay? That's all. That's where the thing comes from.

It's not coming from itself. That's the background, okay? You can't understand what the angel's going to say without this background.

Oh, last thing, I mean, we forgot to say, how do you plant the seed for a pen? Suppose you want to see a pen. Then how would you plant the seed?

You ready? You gotta help him out. So, he needs a pen.

He's got to sign an important contract for the diamond badge or something. They want him to be a pitcher. Then I, I like the pen.

It's my pen, mostly. And then, watch. Watch this moment, okay?

Watch this moment, okay? It's very important. We did it in Ukraine the other day.

It was really funny. Okay. Okay?

When I let go, with the, like, love for him and care for him, when I say, you want a pen, I'm giving you a pen. When I let go, that plants a seed. The moment I let go, it plants a seed, okay?

And then that seed festers in the subconscious. That seed splits, it grows, it gets stronger and stronger, and then it might create ten pens or a hundred pens in the future, for me. That's how you gotta see it in your mind that the dog didn't have in their mind because the dog didn't give anybody a pen recently.

Okay? Okay? Got it?

That's the background. Now, now, the angel says, you know, the devil challenged the angel, what do you want me to meditate on? The angel says, meditate on you.

Meditate on me. Michael meditates on Michael. Pete meditates on Pete.

Okay? Aisha meditates on Aisha. So you pick your, object is yourself, you know?

And then you, then you try to find where is you in all this stuff. Where is Michael? Okay?

Is Michael in his parts? Got it? That's the meditation.

You wanna be happy, you wanna make 200 million dollars in your free time, you wanna, you know, travel the world for fun, you wanna have a relationship, the most beautiful relationship in the universe? Just get this, okay? You have to figure out, is me, is Michael in the parts of Michael?

And they go two ways, okay? I mean, yeah, that's a homework question. By the way, there's homework, you can do the homework if you want, most people won't, I don't care.

It took me a long time to find it. But what I learned was that if you struggle through the homework, then you can teach this to other people. So if this is some revolutionary way to be happy, it's probably a good idea to try to do the homework, okay?

You don't have to, but there are homeworks, and there will be a study session tomorrow here, here, at the restaurant? Where is Nicola? Now?

Here? One o'clock here? In the restaurant?

In the restaurant? Or where? Paradise Café on Tatum and Shade?

Anyway, you'll find it. Okay. At one o'clock, if you want to go home with somebody, I advise that you do it together with somebody, you learn more.

So there will be some teaching assistants there. So what the first homework question is, where are you supposed to look for yourself? And the answer is, in your body and in your mind.

Is Michael in Michael's body? Or is Michael in Michael's mind? Is Michael in the parts of Michael's body?

Or is Michael in the parts of Michael's mind? Assuming that the mind and the body are Michael. Michael's made of Michael's mind and Michael's body.

There's a couple other small stuff you don't have to worry about. Mainly, it's covered. If you say Michael's body and Michael's mind, then that's Michael.

Michael is the sum of those two parts. So the angel says, if you want to find Michael, you might start looking in the body and the mind. Check his body and check his mind.

See if you find Michael. Because the angel says, you've been misunderstanding Michael your whole life. If you understood who Michael was, you would be happy.

You would have millions of dollars. You would have a perfect relationship. You would have a nice house.

You would have good health. You wouldn't be living in a world of war. You would have fixed these things a long time ago, if you understood who Michael was.

The main thing you misunderstand is yourself. Then you expand it to other people. You make a boo-boo about me, and then you spread it everywhere else.

So, we're going to look for Michael. And he's clever. The angel is very clever.

He needs to mention Lama, right? The angel. The lady.

So, she says, look in your body and look in your mind to see if you can find Michael. Okay? The body, they take as a thing in one moment, okay?

Like the pen, okay? The pen has all its parts, right? The pen has the tip.

The pen has the barrel. The pen has the back. And the pen has the what do you call this thing here?

The cap, right? It has those parts, right? In a single moment, it has five, six, seven parts, okay?

Got it? That's the body. Arms, legs, torso, head, neck, okay?

Ears, eyes, those are the parts of the body. But when he gets to the mind, it's more sophisticated, you see? He says, let's look at the flow of the mind over time.

Let's look at the flow of your mind from this morning up to now. What are the parts of that mind? Your thoughts at 3 o'clock.

Your thoughts at 3.30. Your thoughts at 4 o'clock. Your thoughts at 4.30. These are the parts of the mind. But now we're talking over time.

So tomorrow will get harder. Tonight is easy. Tomorrow we're going to look at the mind.

Is it Michael? Today is easy. Is Michael Michael's body?

And that's easy, okay? Here's the first question. We'll see what kind of week you have.

It's tough, okay? You ready? Answer honestly and don't think about it too much.

This is, you know, if you see it's about debating, this is good advice. Just say something and then you can fight it later. It's like if you make a mistake in a song, you just keep going.

Right, you see this? Okay. Is Michael Michael's arm?

No, I mean it's not enough. Michael is not his arm. That's the easy part.

Now's the tough part. Is Michael all his parts together? Ah, be careful.

Think about it. Don't answer right away. What do they call it in Muslim school if there's a word?

I saw in Marrakesh and in Venice a school of classical what do you call it? Madrasa. I saw some beautiful madrasas and they also do this.

They also argue. It's the same, you know. This ancient wisdom much like in Islam and in Buddhism both, you know.

They ask you a question, you know. We saw it in Fes. It's very beautiful.

I was very excited. It even looks like a Tibetan monastery, you know. So, question for you.

I'll ask it again. Are you not all your parts together? It would seem that way.

I mean, you know, they say, where's Michael? He's in his fingers, his arms, his legs. That's Michael, isn't it?

So, am I just one of my parts? No. Am I something other than my parts?

If you took all my legs and arms and head and know the way, would there still be a Michael? No. So, Michael must be all his parts together.

We'll be going around here. Could you take away a bunch of my parts and Michael would still be here? No.

If you brought all the parts here, would there be a Michael? No. I don't get it.

Because not everyone seems to see the same way. Everyone sees the same exact parts but they call them different things. Yeah, okay.

That's where we're going, okay? And then we'll take a break, okay? I don't want to bust your brains.

I just want to get you to that. So, Jack gave a very, very sweet answer, a very good answer, okay? When the baby, sorry, when the dog looks at this thing and when the human looks at this thing, question for you, ready?

Are they looking at the same bunch of parts? Yes. Next question.

Do they see the same thing? No. Next question is more difficult.

Is it the same thing? No. No, it's not.

I mean, it's not. A chewable thing is not a pimp. It's a different thing.

There are two different things, okay? Are the dog and the human looking at the same parts? Yes.

Do they see the same thing? No. They don't see the same thing.

I mean, one starts salivating and the other starts crying of horror, you know? It's different. They don't see the same thing, okay?

Which means, okay, try to grasp this. Try to understand this. The pen is not here in the bunch of parts.

Okay? The parts do not make the pen. Okay?

You could put all these parts together, the same parts, and somebody else would want to chew on it rather than writing with it. Which means, what he said is a good idea. You can look at the same bunch of parts and see two different things.

That means the pen is not in the bunch. Now let's switch to your husband. Okay?

You come home. You know, you're tired. You worked really hard.

Nowadays, the women get to do both. They get to do the work and they get to cook. So you come home.

You're really tired. You make some food for your husband. And then you say, Here, I made you beef bourguignon.

And then your husband says, It's okay, honey. I ordered some Domino's pizza. It happens, right?

We know that. And then you're like, Well, here, I worked for two hours on the beef bourguignon. It's Julia Child's recipe.

I mean, we're talking buying food here because, Oh, I can't run out of Domino's. You know, what's to do? You know?

And anyway, I don't like your food, you know? So then, this is marriage, right? This is the way it goes.

And and then suddenly you are seen. The same husband that you fell in love with and got married to in this kind of chapel. I was in the bride's room before the talk.

The same bunch of parts that you saw as the man of the best man in the world, right? Is now, you're looking at the same parts and now he's like, Oh, I'd rather walk the block next to you. You know?

Now, you see, you can't just leave philosophy in the man, you know? It's not for that. It's for your happiness.

It has to have something to do with your life, right? So your husband is a bunch of parts. His eyeballs, ears, you know?

Everything. Together. But that's not all.

That's not all he is, okay? Because he's also what you think he is. There's one final ingredient.

There's one final part of him that without that part, he's not who he is. And that's how you think of him. You can have all the parts of a pen here, but if you don't think of it as a pen, then it's not a pen.

Got it? If it was a pen, just by having all the parts, then the dog would also see a pen. Got it?

So for it to be a chew toy, is it enough that there's all the parts of a pen? No. The dog has to think of it as something to chew.

And that's the final part. You see? The dog looks at all the parts and unifies the parts into a chew toy.

And the human looks at the thing and joins all the parts together and sees a pen. That's all. The final part is how you think of it.

And then it becomes a pen. Is an iPhone an iPhone? Is an iPhone an iPhone?

Is an iPhone all its parts together? Is it all the apps and the battery and the buttons? Is that an iPhone?

No, not until you think of it. That's why Steve Jobs is in the zoo here. That's why Apple is bigger than Exxon now.

Okay? The parts existed before. You know, I have a Motorola phone here somewhere.

I mean... It has... And it has all the same parts.

But they didn't think of it the same way. You see? Somebody thought of it this way, like artistic and functional and fast and cute and, you know, expensive and...

You know? So... You see?

Someone took the same parts and thought of it in a different way. Why was Steve Jobs and whoever did it? I don't know.

There's the same parts that are in other phones. But they thought of it in a different way. And they presented it in a different way.

Okay? We would say, if it made him rich... Get this, okay?

If it made him rich, which it did, okay? It didn't make him immortal, right? He's dying.

He's dying. This week he's dying. I don't know.

Okay? It didn't make him immortal. He's missing something.

We'll get to that. Okay? But it made him rich.

Okay? If it made him rich, what was the cost? If it made him rich, what was the cost?

He gave money. He helped somebody. Okay?

He was generous. He gave money. He put the seeds in his mind.

And then it made him money. But his mind had a seed to organize the things in a new way. Got it?

Now let's go back to your husband and you can have a refreshment, okay? Because it's making you hungry talking about the pizza. The husband is also coming from you.

Everything's... You know? You can go like this to your husband and when he complains you can say, I just meant you're coming from me.

It doesn't mean you have to leave. He's also coming from you. Okay?

Is he all of his parts? Be careful. Because the implications are going to give you trouble.

Is he all of his parts? Is your husband his arms, his legs, his mustache, whatever? Is he or is he not?

No, he's not. What completes him? Yeah, there must be a unifying picture coming from you.

There must be a picture coming from you. Then he becomes what he is. Okay?

You can have husband arms, husband legs, husband nose, husband ears, husband eyes, husband's laziness. You can have all those things. But he's not a husband to you until you think of him as a husband.

Got it? What made you think of him as a husband? If you like him, it's because you've helped other people.

If you like him and you love him, it's because... Remember, the wedding day husband came from good cities. The Monday night football husband.

The... What's that company? Domino's husband.

He comes from bad cities. Alright? That's all.

And the seeds change. The seeds grow out. The seeds pop up.

They turn him into a nice, weatherable husband. And then they die. They get old.

And they change. And then new seeds come up. And then you see he wants this pizza.

Okay? Got it? So, let's summarize and if you pass the test, you can have your address.

Is your husband made of parts? Yes. Everything's made of parts.

Is he only the... Is he his own? No.

Is he all his stuff together? Not yet. Not yet.

What completes him into a husband? A seed coming from your mind. If you see a good husband, what seed is that?

You have somebody. You gave someone companionship and love and now you see this guy that you want to marry, okay? Then those seeds get old.

Those seeds grow out. New seeds come up. And he's like, I love you.

Once again, you know. And he's going to ignore you your whole life. He's just going to sit in front of the TV.

You know? It's the same parts. But it's not a husband yet.

It's not a bad husband yet. Until you make him bad. Last thing.

Whose fault is it that he's watching the game? It's your fault. Make that breakthrough.

Take responsibility. Make that breakthrough. Take responsibility.

I have seeds that make him watch the game. I have seeds that make him want pizza. Maybe you were inconsiderate to somebody last week.

Someone came to you, offered you some coffee at work and you're like, I don't like that kind of coffee. And you just blew them off, you see? That put a seed in your mind.

Then next week, you make your husband a nice dinner and he's like, I want the dumplings. Got it? Everything's coming from you.

So now go have a refreshment. Do you have any of those with anything? What is it called?

Anything? There's refreshments over there. Anything else?

No? Then I'll stay here if you have any questions or you want to say hi. I'll stay here.

To have a human body. To have a thinking mind. To live in a country which is free.

To have enough to eat. You planted millions of good seeds. You are like the kings of kindness.

You have the kindness of countless people. And so you are able to sit quietly in a room. The police are not going to come here and shoot you for being here.

You are living in a special place. And you are free to do the things you want. And you have enough food.

And you can listen to these things. And you have an image of yourself as like, I'm human. And I can think.

And I can do things. If I like what this guy says, I can do something with my life. You see what I mean?

You have the freedom to do that. When you compare Michael to, when I say, are you your parts? And M-E-K, is it M or E-K?

When E-K thinks of E-K and checks his parts, the E-K that he thinks of is also coming from a seed in his own mind that was planted by being kind to thousands of people. Okay? To be a person here, free, enough food, intelligent, all your senses complete.

That seed is, that's also coming from a seed. That's you. Each you here is also coming from a seed.

So it goes both ways. The parts that you consider Michael's are called Michael's because of the seed in my mind. But the Michael to whom the parts belong is also coming from my mind.

Got it? It goes both ways. It's very difficult.

It goes both ways. My self impression of myself is coming from thousands of kindnesses to other people. Because I'm alive.

And I can think. And if I grasp these ideas, I could change the world. I could make a world of peace.

You know? It's so cool. You is also coming from not just your parts, not just the you that you name to your parts, but the you that owns the parts.

The you that you compare the parts to is also coming from you. And that's a precious you. That's an infinitely precious you.

Very rare in the world, in history, to have this kind of freedom and time and food and liberty to do things. This is priceless. Your life is priceless.

You must have done... I like that style of music, right? Okay.

So somewhere in my past, in my childhood, I must have done something good. Okay. You know there's something going on.

You must have done something good. I'm just trying to make sure I cover your homework so you don't... People come up to me and say, you know, you talked us into doing the homework and you didn't mention any of the things on the homework.

But... Uh... Oh, I like this one.

There's five questions on the homework. We're up to number four. So now comes a difficult question, okay?

A lot of people that come to a Buddhist park, the people talk about, you're not really there. And then they go home and they have this identity crisis. They're like, the guy said I'm not really here.

It's exactly what your husband's been telling you. Uh... You know...

You know... Am I really there or not? Because we said you're not there.

Michael is not in Michael's class. The pen... Did I take your notes?

I did. Very well. You're still supposed to take notes, you know.

Uh... Somebody give him a pen, okay? Uh...

The pen... Just remember, the pen is not in the pen. Use the word in.

And you're safe. Okay? Learn to use the word in, and you understand everything.

Is the pen... in the pen? I'm asking.

And you're going to say... No, it's not. If it were in the pen, the dog would try to use it as a pen.

But it's coming from me. The pen, NUS, is coming from me. Why is that relevant to your life?

That wanting Domino's pizza, NUS, is coming from you. Okay? I just solved all your personal relationships, but you didn't notice.

Okay? I mean, then we just give you the money and you're okay. Uh...

Everything about your husband is coming from you. It's all a mirror of your own... of your own self.

Whatever problems you see in your husband is how you were treating people a month ago. That's all. That's the truth.

We have a university near Tucson. Uh... And I like to call it the half-sentence university.

Because most people who have been to many courses, they understand that what they see is coming from how they acted last week or last month or last year. They understand that. So criticizing others becomes difficult.

Because when you criticize others, you are really announcing to the world how you were last month. Okay? Right?

So you have these half-sentences at nine o'clock. Somebody says, I can't, this new person came. I can't believe it.

You say, what? You say, God, they're so... Because if you say they're so irritating, you know, everybody around you goes...

Okay? Because they're just a reflection of you, okay? So, is the pen, I mean, is the pen in the pen?

No. Now, tough question. Is Michael in the part of Michael?

You have to say no. Say no or falsely, you have a choice. Just say no.

So then some people make a mistake. Some people make a mistake. Then they say there's no Michael.

Then they're saying there's no Michael. Michael's just an idea. Michael's just a thought that pops up in my mind.

Michael must be living in Michael's head. Everybody that Michael sees is inside Michael's head. It's so lonely here.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay?

[Говорящий 1]
Like that, okay? Everybody's coming from me. I'm just living there.

There's no Michael in here. It's just an idea, right? They go too far.

They make a mistake. They go off the end. Okay?

And it's... So, in the teachings of the Lamas, they say there are two Michaels. Okay?

There are two Michaels. Just for good luck, say may gyu dak. May gyu dak.

Yu gyu dak. Yu gyu dak. May gyu dak means the Michael who was never there.

Yu gyu dak means the Michael who is obviously there. And both exist. There is a Michael who was never there.

And there is a Michael who has always been there. Let's start with the husband though, because that's easier. I was in China.

I was in Guangzhou. Some guy raised his hand. He said, Why do you always talk about husband?

Why don't you talk about wife? There's a husband that never existed. And there's a husband which does exist.

What are they? Let's talk about them. Then it will become clear in your mind and you won't make a mistake.

You won't go to some crazy idea where there's no Michael. I don't have to wear my clothes tomorrow.

[Говорящий 2]
Or something like that.

[Говорящий 1]
You won't make some stupid mistake. There is a real Michael. And there's also a Michael that was never there.

But it's easier to talk about it with his pizza and the husband. There's a husband who is there. Who is that husband?

That's the one who said he wants a Domino's Pizza. Does he exist? Yes.

What's the proof of it? He does something. He affects something.

Only things which exist can affect things. How does he affect? He upsets me.

If he didn't exist, he couldn't upset me. His words upset me. His manner upsets me.

His thing about the pizza. He's there. He's saying something.

You can't say he's not there. Somebody ordered the pizza. He's there.

That's yu gi dak. Yu gi dak means there is a husband who's there. But what's more important is the major dak.

The husband who was never there. Who's that? Tell me that and then you'll probably be happy with your husband.

Who's the husband who was never there? Describe the husband who was never there. The husband who orders a pizza and hurts my feelings after I cook for 3-4 hours.

Who's not coming for me. Who? That husband was never there.

And all your problems are towards someone who was never there. That's the irony of human unhappiness. All the things you're unhappy about were never there.

Okay? A husband who's coming this way. A husband who's saying all those things not because you did something.

That kind of husband was never there. And could not be there. So you're getting all upset about somebody who's not even there.

That's the irony, that's the tragedy of unhappiness. You're unhappy about someone who isn't there. And he never was there.

And he couldn't be there. Because the pen, because the dog doesn't see the pen. Right?

Got it? Okay? He must be coming for you.

Because if he's not coming for you, then the dog would see the pen. Because the pen would be in the pen. Okay?

Got it? The husband would be in the husband. But he's not.

His mother likes him. Go figure. You see?

His mother likes him. Even when he's laying around watching TV and eating pizza, he's the best boy. You know?

I have a neighbor. Her two sons are 60 years old. They are still laying around her house doing nothing and watching television.

And according to her, they're just wonderful. You see what I mean? 60 years.

They're still doing it. That proves they're not coming from their side. They're coming from him.

So in every case, you have to say there is a me who's there. There is a Michael there. He's talking.

He's doing things. And then there's a Michael who's not there. Who's the Michael who's not there?

A Michael who is not coming from me. Okay. A Michael who doesn't come from how I treat other people.

Never existed. Got it? A Michael who doesn't come from how I treat other people.

There's nothing there. If you're not happy with yourself, if you don't have enough money, or you can't find a good boyfriend, or you have a health problem, then fix it. Because it's coming from you.

Then just do the opposite. Whatever the seed is, do the opposite. If you're sick, you have to take care of the sick people.

If you don't have money, you have to give money. If you're not happy, you have to try to make others, take an interest in other people's lives and make them happy. Try to make them happy.

That's all. That's how this angel devil thing relates to you. The angel is telling you how to be happy.

The devil has this old story. The devil has this old story. You want money?

Go work hard. Take money from other people. Compete in the marketplace.

Get the money. Get that money. You know?

And then if you told that devil, look, the way to get money is to be kind and generous to others. He'd say, you're crazy. I was in China also with one lady.

She wrote and this is all Shenzhen. I told Shenzhen people, Guangzhou people are smarter than me. Shenzhen people said, Shenzhen lady said, I have a question, Geshe-la.

I said, what? She said, I pay to come here. I said, I know.

She said, but the advertisement said you're going to teach us how to make money. I said, yeah. Then she said, you're telling us how to give away money.

She got upset at me. You know? That's how you make money.

Okay? It's very unnatural. If I tell you, I had a lady today, she came to me, she said, I don't have any time.

I'm always busy. I never have any free time. I'm stressed.

I'm always like upset. I never have time to finish anything. She said, what should I do?

I said, do you have any friends who have kids? She said, yeah. I said, offer the babysitter there for three hours.

And she's like, you're crazy. You know? And it's the same thing as telling someone give away money.

It sounds crazy. The reason people are unhappy is that the way to be happy is the opposite of what you always thought. Complete opposite.

If you want more time, give time. If you want more money, give money. Okay?

It's the opposite of what you thought. The devil is cheating you all the time. The devil deceived you all these years.

The devil told you, if you want money, go fight and compete for money. If you want a boyfriend, steal one from somebody. It's the opposite way.

Respect other people's relationships. A guy will come. If you don't get a guy by stealing a guy, you get a guy by respecting other people's relationships.

It's very counter counterintuitive. What you want, give it to someone else. And then you'll have more than you want.

Okay, we got Do you guys We got one more question, okay? Let me see. Yeah, that's okay.

We'll cover that. Does anybody have a question now or I'll just keep going? Is there any question about what I said that you're not sure about?

By the way, when I ask for a question, in the monastery, we debate, right? And you're supposed to you're supposed to ask tough questions to other people. You're supposed to you're supposed to like ask them a tough question.

And then there's a what they train you to do is ask a question that you're not sure about. Then you will lose the you will lose the debate, but you will learn something you didn't know. So they teach you in the monastery you ask a question about, you start a debate about something you can't answer.

Which is looks like you're going to get in trouble, but actually you learn more, right? What I want you to do, if I ask for a question, ask me something you want in your life, okay? Ask me something that you want in your life.

Here's your chance, okay? I'm like the Wizard of Oz. And no, I I can help you, I can really help you.

And you're here, and use the time, okay? Ask me what you really want in your life. And then let's talk about it.

Because we learned something tonight, from the argument between the Dhamma, we learned that things are coming this way, so then you just need some, what do you call it? Tweaking for your own situation. So you gotta ask me about your own situation.

If you would, okay.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay, so, oh sorry, I have a question.

[Говорящий 1]
Okay.

[Говорящий 2]
Um, I guess I could make it personal. I guess You don't have to. I'm wondering if the ideal if we're doing service for example, to create good karma is the ideal to not have that thought of creating good karma in our heads?

You know what I mean? Like I feel sometimes like I'm doing this for a good cause, or because it's gonna come back to me but I don't feel like that's the right incentive, like it's not coming from a pure place. Okay, it's a good question.

[Говорящий 1]
I think we have a cultural background, right? we grew up in a culture, I mean a lot of us grew up in a culture where the hero was was mailed up and murdered, you know. And we felt like we had to get, if we didn't get murdered, we weren't doing something right.

You know, we would have to sacrifice our desires that others be happy. It doesn't work that way. Okay, just flatly it doesn't work that way.

If you sacrifice in order to make others happy you will be much happier than even they are, okay? And you can't escape it. You can say I don't, you can say I'm gonna make you happy but I don't wanna be happy but it's not gonna work.

Okay? How about we just say let me undertake actions which make the world happy and which also make me happy. And there's no problem with that.

Okay? Obviously it's wrong to say I'm gonna give you money cause I want money and I don't care about you. That's obviously wrong.

But what about but does it have to be I give you money and I will have none. You know? If that's a wrong idea also I say it's a wrong idea, I think it's a wrong idea I will give you money, I will give money we'll both have money.

Okay? That's beautiful. Then everybody's happy.

And that's not a problem. Win-win is not wrong. Okay?

It's wrong to say I'm gonna help you just because I want something and I don't care about you. Because then it won't work anyway. Okay?

Things given without love will not plant a good seed anyway. It plants a seed. It's a lousy, crummy little seed.

Alright? No, you'll get something. You'll get a churro or something.

But you won't get you won't get eternal happiness or something. It has to be done with love. But love for yourself also.

Or it's not real it's not total love because you love somebody else. So it's not wrong to anticipate beautiful things happening to both you and the person that you love. And it should be like that.

This thing about I have to sacrifice my happiness for you is a mistake.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay, other questions.

[Говорящий 1]
Other questions. Who's got the mic? I think you can't point the mic towards here.

Toward you. So you had spoke before about having impure thoughts or negative thoughts being almost a worse seed than a negative action.

[Говорящий 2]
At what point, when the thought enters, do you stop it or do you change it or how do you stop that thought from coming in? If you're not acting on the thought but it's still happening you're almost this massive negative seed that's being planted but you're like, okay, stop. Don't act.

[Говорящий 1]
So Anthon is asking like I think I would like to murder my husband when he talks about the pizza. But I'm able to control myself. Then this comes from a former class that we were both in.

So do you still create a negative seed if you decide to forego killing him? If the thought, because thoughts are, actions are pretty easy to control. You know like you have to go to the kitchen, get a knife, approach him in a subtle way.

But the thought can pop up in your head. And we were saying, we had another class where we were talking about thoughts are when you have a thought you are close to the place where seeds are stored. Seeds are stored within your consciousness.

When you have a thought to murder your husband about the dominoes because that's so close to where seeds are stored, as opposed to the actual action with your skin that seed is planted more powerfully because you are close to the storehouse. A thought is much more powerful than the action which results from the thought. Which means that a momentary a momentary thought that just passes through your head you know, I would love to kill you know, and then you like stop it you know, no no no, just a pizza you don't get killed by a pizza.

But the thought the thought like flew through your mind. That's a serious bad seed. It will make tremendous bad results for you.

And Anton is saying, it's like it flies past so fast and if you never act on it then how much does it count for? And the answer is pretty much. If you are a real yogi, right?

Then the greatest asana you can say to learn is to catch your thoughts in mid-thought. And change it. And that takes years of practice.

And that takes years of meditation. As a thought forms as you feel a thought forming in your mind, you you divert it. I would love to kill him.

And between you and oh you put an X. You see what I mean? Your awareness becomes that sharp and quick.

And that's why we meditate. So in mid-thought you can it's like the diamond mountain mid-sentence. But it's at the speed of thought which is really an extraordinary skill.

And it's a beautiful skill. It's a great skill to have. If you can divert your thoughts in mid-thought as a thought flies through your mind at the speed of thought you correct yourself.

And that's yama and niyama. In yoga that's that's self-control. And that takes years of practice.

And it's a beautiful high art that you should develop. It's called conscience. And it's a beautiful thing.

It's a noble and precious thing in the world. And people don't appreciate it nowadays. The ability to be noble in your own heart, in your own mind is it's better than being a rock and roll star or a movie actor or it's more it's more glorious.

So in the meantime when you start planning... In the meantime it's called the exercise of shortening the gap. It means I would like to kill him.

And in five minutes I need to calm down and say, you know, that was a bad scene. I really should, you know I shouldn't have thought that. And it takes you five or ten minutes to catch yourself.

So until you get as fast until you get fast enough to catch yourself in mid-thought, you're trying to shorten the time it takes to catch yourself. Sometimes it's a day, right? Like the next day you think, you know, he's not that bad.

And the pizza was okay. And then you catch yourself 24 hours later and you say, now I shouldn't have thought that. And then the goal is to shorten that, to get it shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter until it becomes mid-thought.

And that's like learning a difficult and it's a noble beautiful way to spend your life.

[Говорящий 2]
Can you just then kind of pretend you love the person and then hope that your mind will catch up to you to what you sort of projected or sort of determine what you're going to think of that person?

[Говорящий 1]
Okay, good question. In this system, you don't have to pretend to love them. You see what I mean?

Because they are a matter at call. You see? You can't you don't have to say, my husband has total disregard for how hard I work to cook and he's asking for a pizza.

That's the kind of husband I have. Because you will never have that kind of thought again. You won't frame the sentence that way anymore.

You will rather say, I can't believe I must have been that inconsiderate last month to somebody to create a husband who looks like that to me. You see what I mean? So it's not a question of trying to love somebody who is unlovable.

If you find him unlovable, that came from you. You're unlovable. You see?

It's very weird. The system is very weird, you see? You're not trying to love somebody who's unlovable.

It's unlovable to ask for a Domino's pizza when the person just spent three hours cooking. It's unkind. And you don't try to love that.

You just try to see how it's coming from you. You see? He's not at fault.

He's unlovable. He's unlovable. You're the one who's seeing a two-part.

He's a pen. And you're making him a two-part. So don't like him, okay?

You can't say, oh, pen, you're not a pen. He is lovable. You make him unlovable.

You see? Then the whole question of trying to love someone who's not lovable is irrelevant now. He is unlovable.

Anyone who would do that is unlovable. So change it. Make him lovable.

Don't try to love someone who's not lovable. Got it? Make him lovable, then love him.

Everybody's in here.

[Говорящий 2]
How do you change it into something more serious? You know, if it's not just pizza, if it's like infidelity or murder, I mean, how do you make that lovable?

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, yeah. No. It's unlovable.

Infidelity and murder are very unlovable. I'm not suggesting... You see, in this system, you don't have to try to love evil people or something like that.

You see? That's frustrating, because it's unnatural. Even if I were committing infidelity or I were murdering somebody, I wouldn't even love that in myself.

It's not lovable. It's not worthy of love. It's wrong.

It hurts people. So in this system, you're not trying to forgive people and say, you know, you're violent and you're unloyal, but I love you anyway. You know?

It's not... That's not the exercise. The exercise is if someone does violence or someone commits infidelity, then the reaction of a person who's trained is not even to think about that.

You think, what did I do to make him that way? What did I do to cause that? All the focus goes off the other person and it comes into me.

And I'm examining my own life. How am I violent? How am I responsible for what's happening in the middle?

You don't write letters to connect men, you know? They didn't cause it. You caused it.

Hinsa patishthan tatsa nidavara tyaga. Yoga Sutra. If you see violence, it's because you were violent.

So the natural reaction of a person in this system... Okay, I saw someone do violence. My husband did me violence.

You know? When my husband was... What do you call it?

He was fooling around. Okay? Then the natural reaction, which is difficult, okay?

I'm not saying it's easy. You need money? What are you supposed to do?

Give money. It's hard. You need time?

You're supposed to... What are you supposed to do? Give time.

Oh my God. That's the last thing I want to hear. Your husband is not loyal to you?

How do you fix it? You become more loyal. You see?

In your own commitments. It doesn't have to be in your wedding commitment, okay? In your commitments at work, or, you know, with your boss, or your company, or your family.

You say, I have a loyalty problem. What? I'm seeing my husband not being loyal to me.

How are you going to fix that? I have to crank up my own loyalty. I have to become a more loyal person.

How? In small ways. That's the...

You have to know that, okay? To fix a problem with loyalty in your husband, be more loyal to others in small ways. Why did I say small?

Why is small enough? It grows. Okay?

I checked on Google. Nemo made me. The weight of an acorn is half a gram.

The weight of a full-grown oak tree is 300 tons. Okay? And it all came from the half a gram.

It all came from half a gram. In fixing husbands, you only have to do small kindnesses on a regular basis, and they will magnify. They will grow.

The more you understand, the faster they grow. Okay? The less you understand, the slower they grow.

Like, if you plant good seeds, but you don't know what you're doing, you throw watermelon seeds, shigua, on this stage, nothing's going to happen because they're good seeds, but you put them in the wrong place. You don't know how to grow a seed. So there's two steps.

Plant the seed, then grow it successfully. If you understand how, then stuff happens faster. What I'm saying is that you don't have to never lie to your boss again to get your husband to be 100% loyal.

Just plant small seeds with correct understanding. You know? Like, you tell people I'll be there at 3 o'clock, be there at 3 o'clock.

Because that's meeting a commitment. And that's not a big thing. That's not like never cheating on your husband.

You know, that's a small thing. Being there at 3 o'clock when you said you'd be there at 3 o'clock is a small thing. Not cheating on your husband is a huge thing.

But the way you get the second thing to happen is to plant small seeds, because acorns grow in the oak tree. And that's good news, right? Like, you don't have to be wildly loyal to everybody.

Just keep commitment on a day-to-day small level, and your husband will suddenly become really fidelitous. Okay? Okay?

It's very cool. It's really cool. It means you can get big results from small input.

Okay? You can fix major problems in your relationship by small actions towards the people around you. And the coolest thing is you don't have to talk to him about it.

Because it doesn't matter. You don't have to announce to him that you are going to be on time for all your appointments this week because you don't want him texting that chick. You don't have to tell him that.

Because he's coming from you. You just fix you, and then he will change. And you don't have to make all these big...

You don't have to have a big conversation with him because they don't work, and you know that. You know the more you talk, the worse it gets. In this system, you don't have to talk.

You just be on time this week. And dedicate it properly to him, and he will change without a discussion. He won't even know he's on time.

He'll just be. Which is kind of cool. It's like the ultimate bossing of him around.

I think there's one more question. How does attachments and personalizing fit into this?

[Говорящий 2]
Because like, you know, if someone, someone's husband doesn't share the same attachment for what they're going to have for dinner, and then she personalizes it where she feels like he's done something to her.

[Говорящий 1]
How does that fit into this? What you call personalized meaning he has done something to her, right? He hasn't done something to her until she's decided it's to her.

Yeah, so he hasn't done something to her until she's decided that he's done something to her. She has an attachment to an outcome that isn't going to happen. In this system, he said you can have an attachment to an outcome that isn't going to happen.

In this system, if you, if that's how you describe attachment, or one kind of attachment. You say one kind of attachment means an attachment to a certain outcome. In this system, you are welcome to be attached to an outcome.

Because you can make anything happen. It takes time. You can't, it's not wise to plant a watermelon and sit there.

You know, okay, I mean, there's a maturing period, right? But in this system, there's no outcome which you are not allowed to hope for. Because all things are possible because all things are coming from you.

You can hope for a future in which the countries of the Middle East and the United States bond together into a new union of people with like interests. You know? That's totally possible.

You just have to plant the right seeds for it. You see, all things are coming from you. So you can plant anything.

All things are possible. And it's not, it's not wrong to to make up dreams and then make them happen. It's not wrong to think of a crazy dream and then plant the seeds for it.

It's the exercise. It's what we do. It's what we're here to do.

So it's kind of cool. Nothing is out of, what do you call it? Balance.

Nothing is unallowed. You can want anything. I mean, as long as it's not like hurting somebody.

But you can have anything. You can make anything happen. It's very interesting.

Then you say, oh, that's too big. And then I say, an oak tree is 300 tons. And an acorn is half a ton.

You tell me what's not possible. All things are possible. In this system, all things are possible.

It's the devil who makes you think it's not. And it has held you back your whole life. And you have pared down your dreams to where they are reasonable dreams.

And you're just cheating yourself. There is no there's no limit on what you can do if you understand these things. You can do anything.

You can be anything. I wanted to be in the jazz, Paris jazz festival So I planned on the scenes. I went to the jazz Paris jazz festival and we played.

Then someone asked me, did you play in the Paris jazz festival? I said, I didn't say no. We were at the Paris jazz festival and we played.

In the basement. that's okay. Now you can have dreams.

Just imagine that you can have anything. You can do anything. Just try.

Try. That's why I'm here. That's why we're doing this.

That's why we're having these programs. Try to imagine something wonderful that you really want. And then learn how to plant that seed.

And then have all the things you want. That's your right. And it's some kind of demon in your mind if you don't think so.

As long as it's beautiful and helps people you can have anything. We're going to do one moment of silence. It's a custom in a Buddhist teaching at the end that you give away we made good seeds tonight.

We all made good seeds tonight. And this whole purpose of this weekend is to to do something to celebrate harmony in the world through different faiths and different beliefs. To celebrate the coming together of those on the 10th anniversary of the Bodhisattva.

To celebrate harmony and people coming together. It's a very beautiful seed. So what's the best way to keep the seed?

You give it away. The best way to keep the seed is to give it away. So we'll do one minute of silence.

Then you imagine that like this is ground zero. This is one ground zero. And from this weekend of harmony we will touch many people and bring harmony to many people.

Just imagine that. And it's a seed. One minute.